October 24, 2017

observations 10-24

Haglund has never seen a Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema screening so packed as it was Sunday afternoon for Le Corsaire. Every seat was taken and people were standing along the sides and a few were sitting on the aisle steps to watch it. Quite possibly there were more people at this movie than were at ABT’s Sunday afternoon performance at the Koch Theater. What?! You mean people would rather watch a ballet movie than sit through ABT’s Her Notes and Thirteen Diversions? Say it isn’t so! The movie was fabulous. Most of the choreography was familiar to us but the Bolshoi dancers pushed the pedal to the metal unlike what we generally see here in Le Corsaire.

Then Sunday night we all trucked up the street to the Ailey Citigroup Theater for the Hearts of Houston Benefit. Beautiful Yuriko Kajiya with Connor Walsh from Houston Ballet and the Cuban Council on Circular Abracadabra from Pennsylvania Ballet (Mayara Pineiro and Arian Molina Soca) were the highlights of a terrific evening; Daniel Ulbricht, too, whose series of brisé volé at sonic speed were quite unbelievable. All of the performers generously volunteered their artistry as did the choreographers who permitted their dances to be performed. The premiere of the Second Movement from Ben Stevenson’s Martinù Pieces, a brand new ballet that he was choreographing when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, revealed quite a storm of emotional outpouring from the Texas Ballet Theater dancers, Carolyn Judson and Alexander Kotelenets. The entire ballet will have its world premiere in March in Fort Worth.

It was either very nice or very stickin’-it-to-you (or both) of HB’s board chair to acknowledge to the audience that she understood how much New Yorkers missed Yuriko and Jared but that they were very much appreciated and loved in Houston. Sitting in a center row was ABT’s unappreciative and entrenched monarch who was moronically oblivious to the icy stares he got from ABT’s estranged patrons in attendance. And so it goes…

Next up, Marcelo Gomes and Sara Mearns Friday night in The Red Shoes at City Center. Wear red, people. Then the Gisellemobile will be on the road overnight to Chicago.

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

I saw "Le Corsaire" near Kansas City on Sunday and LOVED it! Happily the filming was also good. Seeing the Bolshoi was a treat. Not many people in the audience here; maybe a handful. Daniel Ulbricht and his Stars of American Ballet will be in Kansas City this Friday, and I'm so excited to see them again! He was amazing last year in "Tarantella" with Megan Fairchild! Loved all the NYCB dancers that performed. Grateful to Daniel U.for bringing a little of New York to the Midwest! Oh, and ABT will be coming to Chicago in February with similar programming as their NYC fall offering. May have to pass on that.

Georgiann, what a fabulous program Ulbricht is bringing to Kansas City! Wait until you see Reichlen and Janzen in the Diamonds PdD (I'm making a casting assumption there, but wow!) They are almost too beautiful together for the eyes to take. And you're getting Who Cares?, too! You'll be on Cloud 9 for quite a long time after this performance.

Agree, Georgiann, about skipping Chicago. ABT is making itself look less and less important by taking such a low budget, insignificant program to a huge market area like Chicago. I guess we have to face the truth that ABT is apparently trying to run itself out of business.

The Hearts for Houston benefit was one of the nicest evenings I've ever spent at a dance performance because people's genuine desire to help was palpable. I loved Yuriko in the Madame Butterfly pas de deux; her effortless dancing is still a joy to watch and she and Jared are sorely missed at ABT. As for the AD, I was aghast at the sight of him, showing his support or whatever it was. I doubt that the same kind of assistance given to Jared and Yuriko ever would be made available to him.

Hello Haglund, I attended the ABT program on Thursday 10/19, and I have to say, I wasn't a huge fan of Jessica Lang's Her Notes. I wonder if you ever saw Pennsylvania Ballet perform any pieces by Robert Weiss? Lang's piece reminded me of Weiss, who is Balanchine-lite. Lang and Weiss sure can string a set of steps together and set the steps to pretty music, but I didn't find anything really compelling about it.

Symphonic Variations by Frederick Ashton was not particularly well executed, IMO. All involved seemed to have different interpretations of where to time movements - on the upbeat or the downbeat? People kept landing leaps at different times - I found it quite distracting. I wondered if it was me, if I was demanding too much uniformity? Perhaps the dancers were being expressive?

Other Dances by Hee Seo and David Hallberg was the highlight of the program for me. Good choreography, well danced.

Serenade after Plato's Symposium is a bit long for my taste. The dancing was quite good, but it seemed like a long piece in an overlong overall program.